50 @ 50

With fell races cancelled due to inaccessibility to the hills and road races cancelled due to icy pavements, Todmorden Harriers’ had to satisfy themselves with a marathon run through deep snow at the weekend.

The run, held to celebrate the 50th birthday of one of their members, Elise Milnes, had a planned route of 50 kilometres (31 miles) around the hills of the Upper Calder Valley.

Waist deep drifts in many sections and knee deep snow for much of the route meant a much harder and slower pace. A strong icy wind and snow showers throughout the day added to the epic challenge. Highlights of the day included sunrise at Stoodley Pike and sunset at High Brown Knoll.

Many Harriers turned out to run part sections of the route with a small determined band intent on completing the full distance. However, after 9 hours ploughing through the snow the group decided to cut it short having completed over a full marathon distance of over 26 miles, just 8km (5miles) short of the intended target.
Afterwards, Elise vowed to be back to complete the full 50km later in the year.